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ctfchallenge | all galleries >> Challenge 176 - Macros >> Challenge 176 - Eligible > African Tulip
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03-JAN-2009 Rod

African Tulip

Backyard Brissie oz

Canon EOS 40D ,Canon EF 70-200 mm f/4L IS USM
1/50s f/8.0 at 169.0mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Rod 07-Jan-2009 06:54
Thanks Aamm:-) I think I might be a bad influence on the girls a:-)
aam1234 06-Jan-2009 09:58
Now Penny is talking OZ talk. What have you done, Rod :)
This is beautiful and delicate, mate.
Rod 06-Jan-2009 07:21
Thanks Penny:-) It's nice to hear you talk proper:-)
ctfchallenge06-Jan-2009 02:54
I fink It's better - the red flowers (and the leaves which maybe you didn't change) really stand out now from the dark background. And the edges are especially delicate! Penny Street
ctfchallenge05-Jan-2009 08:21
Rod
Thanks Troy:-) No worries Penny, I've lightened it up a bit so it doesn't look so saturated. Wot you fink?
ctfchallenge05-Jan-2009 00:58
thanks, Rod, for all the explanation. It really helps me to have such detail about the light and processing. I'm not big on dodge and burn yet. Penny Street
Guest 04-Jan-2009 22:59
Beautiful Rod. Nice treatment.
Rod 04-Jan-2009 04:06
Thanks Mary Anne & Doug:-) It's been very windy the last few days so I will have to wait for some still air & try a picy with the yellow tips.
ctfchallenge04-Jan-2009 02:57
Rod, the fringed yellow edges of the tulips are so interesting that I'd try to go in closer (or do more of a crop) to emphasize just those edges without including the rest of the flower. I think that would be especially striking against the dark background.
--Mary Anne
ctfchallenge04-Jan-2009 02:39
Moody tulip's Rod. Looks great on my monitor too but you bring up a good point. There are no doubt monitors out there that are giving false brightness and color saturations out there on both sides of the scale. -Doug
Rod 03-Jan-2009 23:13
Thanks Girls:-) The picy is darkish Carole to create some mood rather than just document what everything looks like in real life, this looks great on my monitor but terrible on Merana's laptop & halfway better on Joshs tn panal monitor.. This was shot outside with just natural light,the flowers on the tree were in late overcast light. The dark background comes from exposing for the flowers which were getting all the overcast light whereas behind it was darker under the canopy of the tree.Shooting with a shady or darker background than the subject gives me a good starting point to burn it in very dark, if you try burning in a light background it looks very false. I did a similar thing with the Bromaliad above, the flower was outside in full overcast light & I shot having the darker under the patio as a background & just burnt it in. No doubt if you knew how to use layers etc you could darken a light background but doing most of it in camera is far more satisfying. I've stuck the picy as it came out of the camera in Pending so you can see I have a good basis to work on, I gave it a bit of a sharpen as downsizing made it too soft. The straight form camera picy looks drab to me tarted up one here but remember I have all my sharpening, saturation & contrast etc settings all at zero so I can make all the choices for post processing. I try to enhance what's already in the picy & will dodge (lighten) some areas in the flowers that show a hint of lightness etc. This picy just had a Dodge & burn & a brightness & contrast adjustment, I lower the brightness to taste & raise the contrast to taste. After downsizing I may do a bit more dodge & burn & the contrast thingy. Using curves does a similar thing.
ctfchallenge03-Jan-2009 16:20
I really love these flowers and wish we could grow them here in N.Cali. The reds look really good but it seems a tad dark on my monitor - how does it look on your new monitor? CJ
ctfchallenge03-Jan-2009 14:15
Did you use some flash to get the dark background? Debi
ctfchallenge03-Jan-2009 14:12
Now you are showing off - Debi
ctfchallenge03-Jan-2009 13:33
Now I know how hard it is to get reds right but you have an advantage using natural light (did you? my guess is natural light plus some lamp or something). This looks really good.
Penny Street